Sighting in Villers-le-Tilleul, October 4, 1954

Between 6:40 and 7:00 pm, a 10-year-old girl riding a bicycle saw an object about 20 m away, which she first took for a camping tent. By her account, it was oval, roughly 2 m wide and 2.5 to 3 m tall, with a conical section on top, and it stood on a rectangular base. As she approached, a hatch about 1 m by 0.6 m lifted open. A man jumped to the ground, closed the hatch behind him and stood still. He was of normal height, with a "square shape" on his head, piercing eyes and a long garment of long, reddish-brown hair. When he moved toward her, the frightened child ran off without looking back. She did not see the object take off.

At the same time, in the direction where the girl had been, two other people reported something. One saw a very bright red luminous object, which they paid no attention to; the other heard a prolonged noise like a cream separator, which made them come outside. That evening, around 9 pm, the child's father and a neighbour went to the spot and found the grass somewhat flattened in a swirling pattern. The gendarmerie visited on 6 October but could make no findings, and the investigation gathered nothing further.

Nothing proves that these four facts are connected. If they are taken as connected, the hypothesis considered is a helicopter, perhaps a Bell 47, seen from the front: the rotor support, hatch, noise, flattened grass and pilot all fit, and the grassy track opening onto a small clearing could have served as a landing spot. The rectangular base, the position of the hatch and the bright red light are harder to account for. The case is of moderate strangeness, but its consistency is low, resting mainly on a single witness, a child, and a short observation. GEIPAN classified it C because of a lack of information and cross-checking.